John Boyega Will Cancel the Apocalypse in ‘Pacific Rim 2’

It’s been a long, slow trip to the screen for Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro 2013’s sci-fi blockbuster, and for a while it didn’t look like the movie would happen at all. Back in January, there was even talk that the movie was “off the table indefinitely,” but a few months later, development began to get more serious. Jurassic World screenwriter Derek Connolly was brought in to work on the script, and Steven S. DeKnight came aboard to direct the film in del Toro’s place. And now the movie has its star, The Force Awakens’ John Boyega.

According to Deadline, Boyega will play one of the heroes of the kaiju versus robots sequel, and specifically “the son of the character played by Idris Elba” in the first Pacific Rim, Stacker Pentecost. Playing the son of one of the greatest-named characters in movie history is quite a responsibility, and I sincerely hope Connolly and DeKnight give Boyega’s junior Pentecost a name just as awesome as his dad.

Here was del Toro’s comment on the news (he remains involved with the film as a producer):

I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox. The Pacific Rim universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world. ‘The World saving the world’ was our goal and I couldn’t think of a better man for the job.”

Boyega, who previously starred in the sci-fi movie Attack the Block, was one of the highlights of The Force Awakens, and showed off a ton of star power and charisma; more enough to convincingly play the son of Idris Elba. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Pacific Rim, but I am a big fan of Boyega’s, and it’s great to see him staying busy outside of the Star Wars galaxy.